Nobody Sleeps

Your absence is hanging hard on our hearts

Each day is doomed from the moment it starts.

The routine we’ve crafted suddenly bores

And the highlights, the fun things, the laughter, just chores.

Around the edge of our lives, a darkness seeps.

And nobody sleeps

This not-normal half-life feels like a parody

Of the everyday perfection that we call normality.

The days and the nights all blur into one

The seemingly endless ‘time you were gone’.

Our longing forms layers, we’re lost in the deeps.

And nobody sleeps

The cold comfort of knowing that you’ll be back soon

It is draining the warmth and the joy from this room.

Our nights’ endless dawn where it always seems darkest

And the noticeable absence of presence is starkest.

The oppressive silence, like violence, creeps.

And nobody sleeps

We cope, of course - we’re fine, we’re alive.

It’s not like we’re worried that we won’t survive,

But there is a hole into which we can see

And we can’t be sure that this would never be.

Somewhere upstairs, somebody weeps.

And nobody sleeps

And then, all is changed and we’re counting the minutes

And we know that however long it has been it’s

Not long before we can run to your arms

And restore the equilibrium that reassures and calms.

And inside my chest, my heart soars and leaps.

Still, nobody sleeps.